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A contraty to most posters I've found last chapter as a very interesting one. Now I'm almost sure, my predictions about plot of this manga was right.
Most of us, me included, dislike Mary Sue types of characters, and we were disappointed when Medaka shown her superhuman abilities. No one expected humans with supernatural powers in this manga. As I've posted before - readers tends to dislike plot devices they didn't expected. But try to look at Medaka Box as a supernatural type manga - like Rosario to Vampire, Sekirei, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi etc. Re-read this series expecting Medaka to be something supernatural (alien, genetic engineered human, halfdemon etc.), and to see another supernatural characters (IMHO we will soon see Shiranui as one).
Till chapter 17 I was unable do comprehend why author is showing Medaka as such kind of character. She looked too me like typical Mary Sue archetype. Now I know her motivation, and I could explain each of her strange actions and behaviours. She is extremely insecure. She feel she need to prove her worth again and again. She wants to be loved and praised by everyone, cause she feel unworthy.
She is connected to Zenkichi probably because he was a first person, who loved her. He was Medaka "safe bay", she always could go back to him, he is a prof, that she is worth something - because there is at least one person who loves her. Because she has a lots of followers now, his importance is dimnishing.
IMHO Zenkichi role was also dimnished because author wanted to show us, how much he doesn't fit into Students Council. There were lots of hints that he himself or other people (including Medaka) see him as unfitting for SC (Medaka folowers). Soon, IMHO in next 2-3 chapters, Zenkichi will leave SC. IMHO this will be the moment, when real plot, and characters development, will start.
BTW - in Medakaverse there are 3 kinds of people:
superhumans - like Medaka, enforcer kid, and probably Shiranui;
geniuses - those with schoolarship - most of shown characters;
common people - Zenkichi so far was only ordinary human shown in this series for more than 1 chapter.

Props to you man, that was really deep and I can see where you get it from. --> However<-- As much as I would like your predictions to come true, I don't believe that Zen will ever leave Medaka side. He has been placed in our mind's as Medaka loyal lap dog and will stay as such, unless some major event occurs. Up till now, many people(including myself) believed that the appearance of a major rival, such as a genius on par-with medaka, would trigger such an event. Unfortunately, that did occur and was also used as a tool to prove Medaka's worth.

Thus, I don't see anything that will be capable of breaking Medaka, at least to the point of needing help from Zen. As you said, hes probably the first one to love her, but she obviously don't love him(yet?) nor need his support. And I think it will stay that way, now that she has many other loyal followers.

A contraty to most posters I've found last chapter as a very interesting one. Now I'm almost sure, my predictions about plot of this manga was right.
Most of us, me included, dislike Mary Sue types of characters, and we were disappointed when Medaka shown her superhuman abilities. No one expected humans with supernatural powers in this manga. As I've posted before - readers tends to dislike plot devices they didn't expected. But try to look at Medaka Box as a supernatural type manga - like Rosario to Vampire, Sekirei, Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi etc. Re-read this series expecting Medaka to be something supernatural (alien, genetic engineered human, halfdemon etc.), and to see another supernatural characters (IMHO we will soon see Shiranui as one).
Till chapter 17 I was unable do comprehend why author is showing Medaka as such kind of character. She looked too me like typical Mary Sue archetype. Now I know her motivation, and I could explain each of her strange actions and behaviours. She is extremely insecure. She feel she need to prove her worth again and again. She wants to be loved and praised by everyone, cause she feel unworthy.
She is connected to Zenkichi probably because he was a first person, who loved her. He was Medaka "safe bay", she always could go back to him, he is a prof, that she is worth something - because there is at least one person who loves her. Because she has a lots of followers now, his importance is dimnishing.
IMHO Zenkichi role was also dimnished because author wanted to show us, how much he doesn't fit into Students Council. There were lots of hints that he himself or other people (including Medaka) see him as unfitting for SC (Medaka folowers). Soon, IMHO in next 2-3 chapters, Zenkichi will leave SC. IMHO this will be the moment, when real plot, and characters development, will start.
BTW - in Medakaverse there are 3 kinds of people:
superhumans - like Medaka, enforcer kid, and probably Shiranui;
geniuses - those with schoolarship - most of shown characters;
common people - Zenkichi so far was only ordinary human shown in this series for more than 1 chapter.

Don't bother over analyzing. There's been absolutely no hint of that, and that won't happen.

even if that were to happen, it would:
1: be pulled out of the air.
2: Destroy Zenkichi's character.

I know why I follow this now. It reads like all those bad self-insertion fanfics i used to read back in the day. I mean like Artemis' Lover bad. When veiwed through that lens it's a wonderously absurd good time as long as you're not expecting too much from it.

Last edited by scrumly1; 2009-09-07 at 22:48.
Reason: You'd never know I'm a native English speaker. Sheesh!

well this manga is labelled as a romance manga rit? and so far, i don think i have seen any romantic bits(unless u count medaka kissing the swimming club captain). if you are saying it's gonna get cut during november, it only has 12 more chapters to publish. maybe it can be counted as 13 if the last chapter is a 40+ page one. so i think it won't get cut so soon as there is still lots of room for the plot to develop. unless it ends up like to love ru D:

Don't bother over analyzing. There's been absolutely no hint of that, and that won't happen.

even if that were to happen, it would:
1: be pulled out of the air.
2: Destroy Zenkichi's character.

I second that, there is no point in over analyzing this manga. Medaka is a walking Deus Ex. The whole super girl theme is suppose to be a hook. It's not intended to have a deeper meaning, kind of like how Lucky Star is just about a bunch of retardedly cute girls doing nothing all day is the hook for it.

I second that, there is no point in over analyzing this manga. Medaka is a walking Deus Ex. The whole super girl theme is suppose to be a hook. It's not intended to have a deeper meaning, kind of like how Lucky Star is just about a bunch of retardedly cute girls doing nothing all day is the hook for it.

Yeah but what makes it harder to accept this, is the one-shot and the first few chapters which increased my expectations. If they meant it to be a gag-manga sort of thing, they should have done so from the beginning, why raise our hopes with "romance blooms in the student council" sort of things or promising to "have awesome fights like the judo thing?" If they wanted to show Medaka and her powers they should've just done that at the beginning. Who knew Zen would become such a lap dog, when he seemed so against in joining and seemed to have a backbone. That's why I m against Shiranui joining the councl, who knows she just might become tamed like Zen and that would take away the only present likeable character

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Yeah but what makes it harder to accept this, is the one-shot and the first few chapters which increased my expectations. If they meant it to be a gag-manga sort of thing, they should have done so from the beginning, why raise our hopes with "romance blooms in the student council" sort of things or promising to "have awesome fights like the judo thing?" If they wanted to show Medaka and her powers they should've just done that at the beginning. Who knew Zen would become such a lap dog, when he seemed so against in joining and seemed to have a backbone. That's why I m against Shiranui joining the councl, who knows she just might become tamed like Zen and that would take away the only present likeable character

I think that's the way many people feel. The one-shot drew in a bunch of people with the promise of good action, romance and a focus on Zenkichi, who was the one who did the fighting of the judo club. We even got hints of a possibly good story involving Medaka's powers causing trouble for others because of her inability to understand how others felt and not knowing what it's like to lose or suffer.

The serialization changed all that completely. We get Medaka fighting the Kendo club and owning them without breaking a sweat in the beginning (including the first example of her superpowers-- picking pockets with a kendo sword to steal cigarettes), we get a focus on how strong she is, with her solving everyone's problems herself without any difficulty (and she seems to be getting stronger and more unbelievable as the manga goes on), we find that her need for Zenkichi seems to be completely fake and she has a horrible personality for someone who supposedly loves everyone, we get Zenkichi turned into a side-character, no character development at all, either for the individual characters themselves or even the relationships they have with each other, and no real story. It focuses instead on the over-the-top comedy and gags and seems to have done almost a complete 180 from the original concept, which has turned a lot of fans off, as Medaka isn't a character you can relate to and her arrogant, tyrannical, manipulative personality combined with her perfection in all other areas makes her a really unlikable character.

I was only able to enjoy chapter 17 because I finally gave up on anything deep and decided to view it as nothing more than a mediocre gag manga. It's like reading a newpaper comic strip-- you can enjoy it, but don't expect anything from it except for the occasional laugh at how ridiculous it is.

I think that's the way many people feel. The one-shot drew in a bunch of people with the promise of good action, romance and a focus on Zenkichi, who was the one who did the fighting of the judo club. We even got hints of a possibly good story involving Medaka's powers causing trouble for others because of her inability to understand how others felt and not knowing what it's like to lose or suffer.

The serialization changed all that completely. We get Medaka fighting the Kendo club and owning them without breaking a sweat in the beginning (including the first example of her superpowers-- picking pockets with a kendo sword to steal cigarettes), we get a focus on how strong she is, with her solving everyone's problems herself without any difficulty (and she seems to be getting stronger and more unbelievable as the manga goes on), we find that her need for Zenkichi seems to be completely fake and she has a horrible personality for someone who supposedly loves everyone, we get Zenkichi turned into a side-character, no character development at all, either for the individual characters themselves or even the relationships they have with each other, and no real story. It focuses instead on the over-the-top comedy and gags and seems to have done almost a complete 180 from the original concept, which has turned a lot of fans off, as Medaka isn't a character you can relate to and her arrogant, tyrannical, manipulative personality combined with her perfection in all other areas makes her a really unlikable character.

I was only able to enjoy chapter 17 because I finally gave up on anything deep and decided to view it as nothing more than a mediocre gag manga. It's like reading a newpaper comic strip-- you can enjoy it, but don't expect anything from it except for the occasional laugh at how ridiculous it is.

Agree, the focus should be what the oneshot presented itself to be. Zen should've been the "main character", his importance has became nill and focused purely on Medaka's over the top abilities.

When I read the one shot, I thought it was gonna about about Zen and how he was going to win the love of his superhuman childhood friend. Which imo is a good premise for a good romantic comedy. But disappointment is all I'm left with.

Unless someone ambushed NisiOisiN in a dark alley and busted him upside the head with a brick. I don't see things switching tracks and focusing more on Zenkichi. I'd like to say that he thinks were all horny teenage boys that just spanks der monkey at every little boob or panty shot. Sadly I know he's smarter than that, well maybe I think he is. I'd like to see it pull out of a nose dive it's in, but even my optimistic side is heading for the local liquor store...

And what are this "other stuff" of him beside the death note spin-off? I suppose they have some quality?

Um, it's us who labels this as romance, not Jump, nor the author.

Well, it was originally labeled Romance. Even the one-shot said it was one. That changed with the serialization.

He did Bakemonogatari, which I guess is a hugely successful light novel series in Japan which takes some of the ridiculousness of manga and combines it with a character driven story. He won awards for it.

Sadly, somewhere in the transition to straight manga, he seems to have lost the whole "character driven story" part in favor of gags.

Which is funny, because the time gap between the oneshot and the manga serialization was really short by average standards.

Yeah, I know. I remember reading the One Shot and finding out that it was already being serialized. I was looking forward to it so much, too. :\

We should see the RAWs for 18 tomorrow at some point if it stays consistent with what we've been getting.

My predictions for chapter 18:

Medaka beats the girl and then goes back to the Enforcer kid. Because she broke school rules, she'll be an idiot and decide that it's ok for the kid to beat on her, because that's his job. So, she'll take a beating until Onigase steps in and saves her, which leads to Onigase joining as the VP.

Hopefully, once that's wrapped up, we'll get some actual story and not the same old stuff they've been throwing at us for 17 chapters. I'd really prefer my characters to be more than one dimensional archetypes with no story or personality to them. Hell, they don't even have any kind of relationships with each other. They're just thrown together and are just there taking up space on the pages while Medaka does everything herself.

That's what makes Yankee-kun so much better than this. It does have great comedy and while it may not have a huge, over-arching story, the character development and relationships are so much better. You see heart to heart talks between Adachi and Shinagawa and get insight into their characters that you'd never see between Medaka and Zenkichi... or between anyone else for that matter.

Now if you'll excuse me, Season 5 of Supernatural starts in a few minutes and I gotta watch.

Yeah, I know. I remember reading the One Shot and finding out that it was already being serialized. I was looking forward to it so much, too. :\

Well that was more of a case of me deciding to scanlate it the moment I heard it was being serialized :3 but the point still stands.

In any case, Medaka Box has been episodic for the sake of comedy, we've yet to see a single serious chapter, but rather we've just been thrown bits of plot points which might evolve into more series stuff, or we could just be roped along the entire thing with no hope of it developing. I'm still waiting for this to change, but until then, God-Mode ftw!

Well that was more of a case of me deciding to scanlate it the moment I heard it was being serialized :3 but the point still stands.

In any case, Medaka Box has been episodic for the sake of comedy, we've yet to see a single serious chapter, but rather we've just been thrown bits of plot points which might evolve into more series stuff, or we could just be roped along the entire thing with no hope of it developing. I'm still waiting for this to change, but until then, God-Mode ftw!

Heh. That's just my problem. I've never been a fan of Mary Sue or God Mode Sue characters, but I can overlook it if there's a good story behind it and good characters to back it up. So, until those bits we've been given do evolve into something more, the manga hasn't really given me anything at all, because it's focused completely on the God-Mode abilities, which makes things very boring for me. :\ Especially when it comes at the expense of the other characters' development. Like Zen, who's the only person you can really relate to, yet he's now no more important that Akune, though many of us thought he'd be the main character.

However, I'm not someone who gives up on a manga easily (took me nearly 50 chapters of the same boring battle to make me finally drop Bleach) and I do see potential in this for a good story. I just hope he doesn't take too long to get into it, because as we've seen with mangas like Double Arts, it could lead to it's downfall. If we are getting roped along and the author has no intention of doing anything but keeping the formula he has now.... well, then it'd probably go down as one of the bigger blunders of manga history. :P